Young scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family Rahul Gandhi is learnt to be working out a plan to reach out to people, especially the youth, across the country through public rallies to be organised in different states over the next few months. Dates and places of this mass contact programme were still being worked out, said Congress sources.

Although he held roadshows in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh during Assembly elections, the plan was to organise a series of public meetings across the country to launch him as a ‘youth icon’, the sources said.

While his roadshows in UP had turned out to be a damp squib in terms of electoral dividends, those in Gujarat and Himachal last month also failed to meet expectations in the party. Out of the 14 Assembly constituencies in Gujarat — was covered by his roadshows — the Congress could win only four. In Himachal, the tally read a little better: 2 out of 4.

Inducted into the organisation as AICC General Secretary in charge of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and NSUI on September 24, Rahul completed 100 days in office on Wednesday. His short tenure has, however, been largely uneventful. He was also missing at the 123rd Foundation Day function of the Indian National Congress on December 28; it was the first after his induction as AICC General Secretary. On the same day results of the Assembly election in Himachal, where Rahul had done some roadshows, were also out. His absence on such crucial occasions has set the tongue wagging in party circles.

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